Nimrod Nation

Besides directing "Chicago 10," the opening night film of the Sundance Film Festival Brett Morgen has directed an eight part documentary series - "an anti-reality show" - about Watersmeet, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, on the Wisconsin-Michigan border, and its high school basketball team the Nimrods, scheduled to be shown on the Sundance cable channel this fall.

Watersmeet and the Nimrods first gained attention through a series of commercials for ESPN, directed by Morgen, after which the school "ended up selling about $700,000 worth of merchandise," said Morgen during an interview.

"When I went there the first time I thought, 'Wow, this is a corner of the country you don't really see on television that much or in film or literature.' And I thought 'This is a good place to sort of explore small town values and some unique weather in the way it defines the community.'

"I find it shocking that in the U.P. you've got one of the coldest places on earth and instead of huddling inside, everyone spends their time outside. That blew my mind." He said he wanted "the first shot and the last shot to be snow" and he called the series - whose narrative arc follows the team's basketball season - the a "love letter to that comunity."